Brush Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco could throw his way into the Super Bowl club

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco passes under pressure from Patriots defensive end Justin Francis during the first half of the AFC Championship game Jan. 20 (Adam Hunger, Reuters)

NEW ORLEANS — There have been times this week, this month and even for large parts of this season, when Joe Flacco was the "other" guy.

Even as the big-armed touchdown maker went about the business of guiding the Baltimore Ravens to their fifth consecutive playoff appearance in his five years as a starter. Even as he defeated Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in consecutive weeks on the way to Super Bowl XLVII.

He is "Joe Cool" to his teammates, perhaps "Joe Who" to others. His own father called him "dull" this week. But Flacco's team has won more games overall — 62 — than any other since the start of his rookie season in 2008, and he sports an 8-4 playoff record that includes six postseason road victories.

That postseason road win total, including the victories at Denver and at New England last month, is the most in the league's postseason history. Eli Manning is second with five. And with the football world around him this week, Flacco was asked if he considers himself an "elite"quarterback.

"I don't really care," Flacco said. "To be honest with you it's kind of a crazy question. It's weird to answer. I'm just going to let my play speak for itself. I don't know if it's answered or not. It's really not my job to concern myself with that. You guys can all talk about that. If we come out here and play the game the way we should and the way we can, then I don't care and I don't think anyone else is going to care. We're going to be feeling pretty good about ourselves and what we accomplished."

Advertisement

Flacco's original contract is up in March, giving him a shot at free agency.

"Hopefully as long as I'm the general manager he's the quarterback in Baltimore," Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said.

A Super Bowl victory would make Flacco's résumé match many of the league's best at the position. One title game victory would tie Flacco with the likes of Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning.

And with Jim Caldwell, elevated to the Ravens' play caller when Cam Cameron was fired with three games remaining in the regular season, Flacco has flourished. The team has run more, with Caldwell making the calls — 50 percent of their offensive plays compared with 40.1 percent before the change. But Flacco has become more efficient and dangerous in the passing game.

He was tied for second in the league this season with 40 completions of at least 25 yards. In the six games with Caldwell he has thrown 13 touchdown passes to go with one interception.

In the Ravens' three playoff games, he has nine touchdown passes, including two of more than 50 yards against the Broncos, without an interception. But with all of the attention the 49ers' Colin Kaepernick has drawn in the team's read-option look as a potential glimpse of the future at the position, Flacco finds himself as the other guy once again.

"I think there is definitely a part of all of us that hear things and when somebody doubts what you want to do, you definitely go show them that they may be wrong," Flacco said. "But I think for the most part we play for each other, and that stuff is kind of a secondary issue."

"He's our leader," said Ravens running back Ray Rice. "I've always said that we go if Joe goes, and this year he just took off. He went out there and everyone was talking about the run game, but everybody follows somebody. I follow Joe Flacco. He's done it for us, so we go out there and do it for him."

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.